Parker gave up 27 straight points to Madison La Follette in the third quarter—and still won its regular-season finale.

The Vikings responded with a 20-0 run of their own in the fourth quarter and pulled away for a 58-44 Big Eight Conference win.

Parker moved back to the .500 mark for the season at 11-11 and gained some much-needed confidence heading into tournament play.

“You stick around long enough, you see anything,” Parker coach Tom Klawitter said of the bizarre second half that had Parker leading 32-10 at one point before La Follette ran off 27 straight to take a 37-32 lead. “But give La Follette credit. They were lights out in that third quarter.

“And for us, I got a feeling I’m going to see some pretty happy faces in our locker room. This was a big win for us going into the tournament because we overcame some adversity and found a way.”

Parker appeared ready to run La Follette (11-11, 11-7) out of the gym when Morgan McCulloch scored the first basket of the second half to make it 32-10. The Vikings didn’t score again until Paige Smith scored 10 seconds into the fourth quarter in cutting the Lancers’ lead to three.

La Follette was 2-for-22 shooting in the first half but came alive in the third. The Lancers hit 11 of 14 shots in the third, including four consecutive 3-pointers.

Trailing by five after three, Parker fell behind by six on Amelia Grahn’s 3-pointer with 7:29 left before unloading on the Lancers with its 20-0 run. Sophomore Bree Porter gave Parker the lead for good at 42-40 on a three-point play with 5:59 left as the fun was just beginning for the Vikes.

Kaitlyn Foster’s free throw with 1:29 left pushed the lead to 10, and Smith capped off the incredible run with two free throws with 1:23 left to play that made it 54-40.

“I thought that our kids really composed themselves because it would’ve been so easy to pack it in when La Follette made their run,” Klawitter said.

“And the first half, I thought we played some pretty good basketball. When a team gets hot like they did in the third quarter, there’s not much you can do but hopefully weather the storm.”

Parker opens up WIAA Division 1 tournament play next Friday, March 7 at Kenosha Tremper.